Polypeptides and polynucleotides of the present invention are important immunogens for specific prophylactic or therapeutic immunization against tumours, because they are specifically expressed or highly over-expressed in tumours compared to normal cells and can be targeted by antigen-specific immune mechanisms leading to the destruction of the tumour cell. They can also be used to diagnose the occurrence of tumour cells. Furthermore, their inappropriate expression in certain circumstances can cause an induction of autoimmune, inappropriate immune responses, which can be corrected through appropriate vaccination using the same polypeptides or polynucleotides. In this respect the most important biological properties are the antigenic and immunogenic activities of the polypeptide of the present invention. A polypeptide of the present invention may also exhibit at least one other biological activity of a CASB618 polypeptide, which could qualify it as a target for therapeutic or prophylactic intervention different from that linked to its use as an immunotherapeutic.
Functional genomics relies heavily on high-throughput DNA sequencing technologies and the various tools of bioinformatics to identify gene sequences of potential interest from the many molecular biology databases now available. cDNA libraries enriched for genes of relevance to a particular tissue or physiological situation can be constructed using recently developed subtractive cloning strategies. Furthermore, cDNAs found in libraries of certain tissues and not others can be identified using appropriate electronic screening methods.
High throughput genome- or gene-based biology allows new approaches to the identification and cloning of target genes for useful immune responses for the prevention and vaccine therapy of diseases such as cancer and autoimmunity.